Not true - Homeland Security Bulletin on Photographers and Federal Buildings
I don’t know what the postings are at the Social Security office you saw, but I don’t think it says what you think it says.
In my first post I said “Also, cops, private security people, the general public tend to not understand this but just because someone tells you something isn’t legal doesn’t mean it isn’t”. If you frequent photog message board it seems there’s always someone that just got in trouble for taking pictures of someone in a park and successfully or unsuccessfully convinced a cop it was legal (or ended up arrested) or had some other scuffle with the law. Taking pictures of federal buildings always seems to get people in trouble since as soon as you do that it seems the security people coming running out and ask you to knock it off. Even if a cop that sees you taking pictures of a federal building does agree that it’s okay to take pictures in the public, it seems that more often then not they’re still going to do their best to get you to move along.
Anyways, the two things I quoted just go to show how common it is for people to not understand the laws regarding photography in the US.
is that with the folds up or folds down? I can never remember which way they go.
Make sure you use tape. Don’t want anything slipping out.
Loitering. The police will move you along under threat of a minor infraction. If necessary, they may goad you into committing a larger offense like touching them (assault).
Well, now I’ll just have to bip on down to the S.S. office sometime Real Soon Now and take a closer look, and see just what that sign says. As I recall, the whole front wall of the office is a huge window plastered full of legalistic warnings of all sorts. The one about no weapons or firearms allowed, the one about no pictures allowed, the one about no recording devices allowed, etc. The overall impression is that the government has mired itself in a bottomless swamp of paranoia.
At least you don’t have to walk through metal detectors to enter, as you do at the I.R.S. office. I should go check what signage they have there too.
I’m going to guess that’s photography inside the building. That’s not an unusual restriction. Photographs of buildings from public spaces? That’s different; the legality of which has been upheld in courts.
Crap, me neither. Sounds like a job for IMHO!
Do the make a tape that doesn’t pull out all the chest hair?
Beauty is pain. Now man up, tape your boobs in and start taking those pictures.
Also, some nail polish remover will probably dissolve the adhesive.
Dammit, you’re right!
Here I come, public at large! My glorious debut…
Hey, where’s Washoe? Great, now I just feel stupid.
You feel stupid? I’m the one who had to Google ‘cummerbund’.
Uh, actually, at least one Federal office building in Sacramento, CA, does have metal detectors, along with a post office. It was quite the nuisance when we lived in a part of town where that was the post office we needed to go to to collect packages and such, having to go through security just to pick up mail.
If this were true (I realize several other posters have already shown that it is not) just about every tourist who ever went to Washington DC would have wound up in jail.
IMHO? I think not. GQ all the way. Are you in the Army?
The pleats face up because they were originally used to hold ticket stubs and similar items,[3] explaining the slang name ‘crumb-catcher’. However, the cummerbunds worn as part of the US Army Blue Mess and Blue Evening Mess uniforms are worn with the pleats down, as prescribed by Army Regulation 670–1 Chapter 24 Section 10(b).
Typical for the Army to do something ass-backwards.
You mean, like the White House, the Capitol or the Supreme Court? (Just making sure that I have all three branches with federal offices here.) Or something more lowly, like this detail of a federal office building in Buffalo, NY?
(There, I’ve confessed to at least four federal crimes. I look forward to the extradition proceedings from Australia.)
Woah. It’s cummerbund??? I always thought it was cumberbund! I’ve been spelling and pronouncing it wrong all my life 
Did you also jaywalk here too???
Also waiting for the SWAT team to nab the google camera car guy… 
As for metal detectors and bag Xrays - they had them in every subway station in the Beijing subway, for example. Nobody evey took a physical look inside my bag, and they obviously handle rush hour crowds in a city of 20M just fine, simply by not caring what’s on the screen if things are busy. I think it just catches the obvious contraband.
Hotels in Egypt also had metal detectors at the doors. Often they just ignored the beep, or if we were in a hurry, we just went around. Only the locals got the 3rd degree - musta bin racial profiling. The TSA should take lessons.
You can take pictures in public. it is NOT illegal. On private property or restricted access, or where the person has an expectation of privacy (public washrooms), you have no right and the owner can set the rules.
I guess the problem with photographing kids is - if some helicopter parent or paranoid schoolteacher calls the police, being innocent won’t stop you from getting the third degree and ending up on some list. (Especially if your camera has 2,000 pictures on its 32GB card, all of them children in playgrounds taken with a long telephoto.) The police can investigate when it appears there is evidence of a crime, and if he dick parent says the wrong thing, it can be grounds for an investigation. Don’t scratch below the belt or fish anything out of your pants pocket in view of the playground…
Me too. Even then, I didn’t know what one is. Didn’t even know it’s an article of clothing.
Update: So, this has been disputed and refuted by several posters above. As promised, I found my way to the local Social Security office today to double-check on this. Result: There is no such notice posted there now. Nothing even close. Just the usual paranoia about it being illegal to interfere with federal employees, or have any kind of weapon on the premises, or to smoke within 25 feet of the door. Nothing about photography.
There most certainly WAS such a notice there as of about a year ago. I kinda thought it might be knee-jerk governmental paranoia, perhaps on the part of some mid-level manager or something. But whatever it was, it’s gone now.
I wonder if this is due to a change in laws? Or due to any court decisions (as implied by some post(s) above)?